a brave bear

Book Review: A Brave Bear by Sean Taylor illustrated by Emily Hughes

2nd April 2016 No Comments

a brave bearSean Taylor dedicates this book in memory of Tove Jansson and I can really see the influence that the Moomintroll author had on him. This is a lovely gentile story of a little bear and his father and their day out together.

As a family we thought this was a fabulous picture book for so many reasons and we loved it. The story is perfect for bedtime, its a slow meander with a tiny bit of mild peril a child might be able to identify with. I thought it was great that it didn’t mention the mother character and was simply about a day out with dad. My four year old thought the story was lovely and it sparked a long conversation about a day out he had with his dad.

As someone who now has children at various different reading abilities bedtime stories can be a bit of a challenge and I often read a selection of different stories. This book was a bit different though; the story and illustrations appealed to everyone from the 9 year old down to the 4 year old. On top of this though the clever use of verbs enabled the 9 year old to get something else above the story out of it. We had a little chat about this and I think he used it in his writing work at school, which to my mind was fabulous. To find a simple story which can work on different levels for different children is a rare thing indeed.

I can’t write about this book without mentioning the beautiful illustrations by Emily Hughes. Every illustration is suitable for framing on the wall and the whole presentation of the book makes it a work of art. I really loved looking at it as an adult, which of course makes it much more enjoyable and something that i’m much more likely to read with the children.

A Brave Bear gets a big thumbs up from us, its simply a lovely heartwarming read. If you’d like to find out more and have a little look inside have a look here.

Claire Walsh

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